Back in 2009, I returned to Penang for the first time in over 20 years (Going Back, Penang 2009),
a visit which resulted in our buying a flat above the coast between Tanjung Bunga
and Batu Ferringhi.
At the same time I renewed acquaintance with the Penang Hill Railway, it was
indeed fortuitous that the period since then has been one of momentous
change which I have covered in the following pages:

While I was filming Funiculi,
Funicula, I got to know some of the people working on the Penang Hill
Railway upgrade and I asked for a piece of the original rail. No problem, but
I was expecting a small rusty length and this is what I got! The name is the
same as on the original coaches, a quick search reveals that they are a major
Swiss company, better known as Ludwig von Roll of Bern which once specialised in
funiculars and cable ways (they sold their interest to Doppelmayr of Austria
in 1996). It's a
wonderful souvenir and either the contractors had the same idea or adopted mine as a
number of these have been prepared for those involved in the project.

Also while I did the filming for Funiculi,
Funicula, I promised myself (and the staff on the railway) that I would come
back and shoot the new operation. The railway reopened in early 2011 and
when we visited Penang in November 2011, I was overwhelmed by total
lethargy, it was the first lengthy real holiday that Yuehong and I had
enjoyed in 8 years together. Our other trips have always been varying
degrees of working holiday whether filming or running Java tours, although
some might argue that our whole existence is some kind of extended holiday,
since we have juggled our limited financial resources so we don't have to
'go to the office'.

Finally, half way through our February 2012 visit, the procrastination
was over and we took the 101 and 204 buses to the Bottom Station. This was
to be an easy start, we were to walk up to the former first passing loop,
the way the paths work going further to the Middle Station involves a jungle
trek which would be no fun while carrying camera and tripod. We originally had no plans
to travel on the train, for foreigners the price is a budget breaking RM 30
(GBP 6); what irritates most is that the locals pay only a small fraction of
this, fortunately selective charging like this is almost unknown in Penang.
However, as you will read later, we had a 'work around'...

At the Bottom Station, surprisingly little has changed at first glance.
The multi-story car park (second picture, background) from which I observed
the new coach being lifted onto the railway has been declared 'unfit for
purpose' and the car park for the nearby Chinese temple has been pressed
into use instead. This is linked to the station by a walkway (first picture,
foreground) which uses some of the old rails, a really nice touch this.

This is the view looking up from the Chinese temple's 'halt'. The old
passing loop is clearly visible as is the new diversionary line just below
the Middle Station. Also visible on the left is one of many safety installations (CCTV
and loud speaker) to try to reduce dangerous trespass as the train speeds are now
high.

Viewed from the side, you could be forgiven for thinking that the railway
had simply swapped tired, old red and white coaches for shiny, new, blue and white ones - a fact that is a tribute to the way the work has been
done:

For all sorts of reasons we had decided to use just one camera for the
filming, so Yuehong amused herself by photographing her husband at work and
getting some still shots:

It was extremely 'warm' and the fluid loss was enormous, two large green
bottles were not enough to slake my thirst, Yuehong sank three watermelon
juices in the blink of an eye.